NVR Swami – 
A significant peace accord signed in New Delhi with Naga insurgents has given India a positive start to develop its far-flung North Eastern states.
No details have been spelt out but the peace deal worked out by the government with the dominant National Socialist Council of Nagaland aims to end more than six decades of insurgency for independent homeland.
Nearly two million Naga tribal people live in Nagaland and in parts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
Insurgency gone
A broad contour of the peace truce suggests the Naga leadership has given up its demand for integration of the Naga inhabited areas under one administration and has accepted the primacy of the Indian constitution.
“Our oldest insurgency is getting resolved. It is a signal to other smaller groups to give up weapons,” a visually happy Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as he received the Naga leaders led by Thuingaleng Muivah in his South Bloc office on August 3.
Mr Muivah took more than a dozen Naga rebel leaders with him for the meeting.
Both sides touched on goodwill gestures and measures to nourish the new relationship between Delhi and the Nagas.
Mr Modi spoke of restoring pride and prestige of the Naga people.
Mr Muivah, as reports suggest, talked about the trust in the Nagas and taking them into confidence in Indian needs.
Urgency talks
Unlike the earlier premiers, Mr Modi has realised that the Eastern Wing has much to offer, Delhi has a lot to give and he had to act quickly.
He gave an urgency to the Nagaland peace talks.
The North Eastern region is tempered with a salubrious climate from the winds of a tapering Eastern Himalayan range and a mighty sweep of the Brahmaputra River that can launch a million dreams for the colourful tribes.
Majestic Tribes
The tribes in India are generally majestic and unique. They need attention, education and direction. They dislike political isms and jingo. They speak in plain language and they expect others to give respect to their privacy.
From a study of tribes in his home state of Gujarat, Mr Modi has felt the pulse of their needs. He also realised that developing North East is a priority for the central government to help contribute to India’s economy as well as use the region as a gateway to South-East and East Asia.
New Chapter
It will help strengthen ties with neighbouring Myanmar, besides keeping in check kidnapping and gun-running elsewhere.
Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang hoped that it would be the beginning of a new chapter for the region.
There is a cautious welcome with subdued happiness.
Yet Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi accused the central government of arrogance as Mr Modi did not take all the chief ministers in north east India into confidence about the peace accord.
Mr Modi has reached out to the tribal people, while Atal Behari Vajpayee touched the hearts of Nagas as a poet when he visited Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, when he was the Prime Minister (1998-2004).
The Naga leaders still recall (in their language) his opening remarks at a public rally.
This is evident in the simple nature of Tribes.
The Nagas are no exception.
PMs to Kohima
From the Gandhi family, the late Sanjay Gandhi, the all-powerful Congress Party Leader in the emergency rule of Indira Gandhi, visited Kohima in 1976.
A look at the archives of Indian Express suggests that neither Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv Gandhi ever visited Kohima during their tenure as Prime Ministers. Independent India’s First Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru faced embarrassment during his visit on March 30, 1953 when 5000 Nagas turned their backs after he rejected their demand for ‘Sovereign Nagaland.’
Although Morarji Desai and Deve Gowda also visited Kohima when they were Prime Ministers, the Nagas remember with fondness only Mr Vajpayee’s visit.
Indian Express quoted Mr Vajpayee as saying, “It is true that of all the states in India, Nagaland has a unique history. We are sensitive to this historical fact. But this uniqueness has in no way diminished the spirit of patriotism among the Naga people.”
Love from Odisha
Perhaps a few may recall that among the early leaders who established contact with the Naga people was the six-footer charismatic Biju Patnaik, who was the third Chief Minister of the State from 1990 to 1995.
Before he joined politics he was an aviator to fly the Royal Air Force and later the India Air Force aircraft.
Mr Patnaik later formed his own ‘Kalinga Airways,’ whose main task was to air drop relief supplies in the rugged and inaccessible areas in what was then known as NEFA or the North East Frontier Agency which included Nagaland.
Positive vibes
As Mr Modi tackles national issues he will pick up positive vibes at regular intervals, he should now fast track his reform programme and channel the multiplicity of voices within his party to maintain a steady and firm touch towards progress.
The Congress Party has to rebuild its image in a more positive way.
Negativity, as author Chetan Bhagat aptly said on his Facebook Post: “The answer to India’s problems is a new state of mind.”
India yearns for it now.
NVR Swami is a retired journalist. He lives in Auckland.
Photo :
Let us take a step towards a prosperous future. Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads Nagaland rebel leader Thuingaleng Muivah towards peace talks in Delhi on August 3 (Picture by Press Information Bureau, Government of India)
